Crime.

Since her debut novel, The Ice House (1992), best-selling author Minette Walters has risen above the standard fare of mysteries and thrillers and produced works rich in character development and psychological suspense. Despite his rage and instability, Charles Acland proves to be a sympathetic, if somewhat shifty, protagonist--no small feat for a writer. Some critics complained of an implausible denouement, and others claimed that the plot became a little unfocused, perhaps because, in the novel's catalog of social ills, Walters has bitten off slightly more than she can chew. However, Walters's vivid, convincing characters sustain this powerful and engrossing thriller, which successfully provides a sobering examination of the private and collective damage inflicted by war.

ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

THE ICE HOUSE (1992): When an unidentifiable corpse turns up on the grounds of Streech Grange, suspicion falls on the three reclusive women living in the manor house--including one whose abusive husband mysteriously disappeared several years before.

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****

The Silver Swan

By Benjamin Black (John Banville)

Quirke is back.

John Banville (The Sea, * BOOKER PRIZE, ***** Jan/Feb 2006), writing under the pseudonym Benjamin Black, introduced readers to the hard-drinking pathologist Garret Quirke in Christine Falls (**** SELECTION May/June 2007). In this sequel, set a few years later in 1950s Ireland, Quirke's curiosity and interest in human nature again get the better of him. When an old college acquaintance asks him not to perform an autopsy on his wife, Deirdre, who supposedly committed suicide, Quirke suspects foul play, lies to the coroner's court, and starts to investigate on his own. Soon, he's on the path of a Sufi healer and a shady Englishman--Deidre's beauty salon business partner--who now has his hands on Quirke's estranged daughter, Phoebe.

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Henry Holt. 288 pages. $25. ISBN: 0805081534

Los Angeles Times *****

"Christine Falls was the most artful noir mystery in years; The Silver Swan is better. The plot is grippingly propulsive, the evocation of Dublin is detail-perfect, every major and minor character is beautifully realized--and there isn't a clunky sentence in the book." TIM RUTTEN

No Times-Picayune ****

"The lonely characters that fill the Silver Swan linger in the mind--a puff of fog here, a shadow there. They ask the big questions, and they never seem quite happy with the answers they work out for themselves in this fascinating meditation on morality." DIANA PINCKlEY

Seattle Times ****

"Worth the price of this brilliant book alone is Black/Banville's virtuoso use of cigarette smoking; how and when his people light up tells us volumes." ADAM WOOG

Boston Globe ****

"Coincidence plays too big a role in the plot, with characters constantly passing each other on Dublin's busy streets and relationships (including Quirke's daughter and deirdre's business partner) springing up out of nowhere. ... Ultimately, such plot failings may not matter." ClEA SIMON

Dallas Morning News ***

"The Silver Swan is a literary, gritty if less satisfying sequel with the clinically inquisitive pathologist named simply Quirke. ... But don't be surprised by the esteemed author's use of such sentence-stoppers as peelers, squaddie and culchie. Maybe next time his editors will add a wee glossary for noir-loving non-Gaels?" JANE SUMNER

Globe and Mail (Toronto) **

"Whatever fat Benjamin Black sucked out of John Banville, he's gone a treacherous step further in The Silver Swan and managed to remove much of the good gristle that filled out the characters in ... Christine Falls." ANAKANA SCHOFIEld

CRITICAL SUMMARY

The Silver Swan raises two major questions: First, is Black-the-crime-novelist as good as Banville-the-novelist? Second, does The Silver Swan live up to expectations raised by Christine Falls? Not surprisingly, critics diverge on both questions. A few think that Black's crime novels don't stand up to Banville's best work. "This distracting mediocrity doesn't suit him at all," notes The Globe and Mail. Others cite Black as a genre-bending novelist intent on using the noir framework to successfully delve deep inside individuals' psychologies. Either way, most critics agree that The Silver Swan, though well-written, is a slightly lesser effort than Christine Falls--with too many characters and coincidences, a likeable but uncharismatic protagonist, and a phlegmatic plot. Critics hope that The Silver Swan will send readers back to Christine Falls--or, better yet, back to Banville.

RELATED ARTICLE: BOOKMARKS SElECTION

*****

Slip of the Knife

By Denise Mina

Denise Mina introduced green newspaper copy editor-sleuth Paddy Meehan in Field of Blood (**** Nov/dec 2005), set in Glasgow in 1981. The Dead Hour (EDGAR FINAlIST **** Nov/dec 2006) followed, endearing the pugnacious Paddy--and the Scottish series--to fans worldwide. Now, in the third novel of Mina's planned quintet, it's 1990, and Paddy's life has improved greatly since her days as a copy editor. Now one of Scotland's leading newspaper columnists, she is living contently as a single mother--until one night when she finds out that her former lover, Terry, has been murdered, possibly by the IRA. She is even more stunned to discover that he left her his country cottage and private notebooks. As Paddy starts connecting the dots in his murder that nobody else seems to see, she becomes embroiled in dangerous secrets. At the same time, a child killer she knew from Field of Blood leaves prison, she tries to protect her young son's life--and more people die.

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Little, Brown. 352 pages. $24.99. ISBN: 031601558X

Boston Globe ****

"Mina excels at this kind of writing, the back-and-forth of competitors and colleagues, the way tension and love bind people uneasily. She's a leisurely writer; although Terry's murder opens the book, the action plays out slowly, and she lets us soak up the abundant ambience and personality." ClEA SIMON

Independent (London) ****

"The element that really shines is the effortless characterization. ... Paddy herself, a tough-talking journo holding down a column on one of Scotland's main newspapers, but struggling with a messy private life and a problem with authority, is one of the most distinctive figures in the crime field." BARRY FORSHAW

Sunday Times (London) ****

"Like the saga as a whole, [Slip of the Knife] reflects the energy of its tabloid press and television industry, its links to Ireland and its citizens' love of abrasive backchat. Where or not [Mina] consciously conceived her series as antithetical to [Ian] Rankin's, a sharply contrasting version of Scotland emerges from her droll, vivid and accomplished novels." JOHN DUGDAlE

Times (London) ****

"[Slip of the Knife] is as wonderful as the other two. ... Meehan is irresistible, the dialogue sparkles with wit and Mina's portrayal of edgy Glasgow in 1990 is riveting." MARCEl BERlINS

Entertainment Weekly ****

"The novel's plot is a bit raggedy, lacking the snap and tension of some of Mina's previous works. Then again, watching Paddy careen around Glasgow in too-tight skirts, dress down sinister thugs in pubs ... enjoy a more robust love life than tubby women in literature are usually permitted is entertainment enough." JENNIFER REESE

CRITICAL SUMMARY

In their reviews of Slip of the Knife (released as The Last Breath in the UK), critics agreed that Paddy Meehan is one rising star. Comparisons to Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus abound, but these more aptly note the Scottish settings and each protagonist's esteemed place in the genre rather than their personalities (a grumpy, alienated man versus a spunky woman, close to her working-class, Catholic family). Most critics cited compelling idiomatic dialogue, riveting scenes, and full-blooded characters; reviewers particularly praised Mina's older, wiser Paddy. While Jennifer Reese of Entertainment Weekly criticized a somewhat hackneyed plot, she, too, acknowledged her "helpless [devotion] to Scotland's most recent contribution to world civilization: cinder-hearted, character-driven crime fiction."